1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to a method of allocating power to subscriber and system equipment for transmission of information in CDMA communication networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the increasing popularity of wireless communication networks among the public, service providers want to provide more resources to their subscribers and be able to efficiently use the resources that are currently being used by their subscribers. The service providers are typically local or national telephone companies that own, operate and control system equipment that constitute a communication network. The resources of a communication network comprise such items as the amount of bandwidth available to the network, the power allocated to communication channels of the network and the transceiver system equipment (e.g., radio transmitters and receivers) used by the network to transmit and receive communication signals. Service providers want to increase the capacity of their network without having to substantially increase their cost of operation through increased power allocations, larger bandwidths and deployment of more system equipment. Moreover, the usage of certain resources (power, bandwidth) is controlled by governmental regulatory entities and standards organizations. Consequently, service providers cannot simply increase their power usage in response to increased capacity demands from their subscribers. Therefore, to achieve efficient use of their limited resources, service providers implement various techniques for controlling such resources as bandwidth and power allocation.
Power allocation is one of the resources that is controlled by service providers through the use of techniques that promote the efficient use of resources. In Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless communication networks, the power allocated to the communication channels is critical because power allocation is one of the major factors that determine the capacity of the network. The capacity of a communication network is the number of subscribers that is using a communication network to convey (i.e., transmit and/or receive) information at a particular time.
A typical wireless CDMA communication network is configured as a cellular network. The network comprises a plurality of cells where each cell contains at least one base station that conveys subscriber information to subscribers in the cell and signaling information to subscribers and other base stations. The cell is a geographical area being served by a base station where such cell is defined by a particular size and shape. Subscriber equipment (e.g., cell phone, wireless laptop, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)) physically located in a cell convey information to other subscribers of the wireless network or other networks via the base station serving that cell. The terms xe2x80x98subscriber equipmentxe2x80x99 and xe2x80x98mobilexe2x80x99 will hereinafter be used interchangeably.
Subscriber information are the various types of information (e.g., voice, data, video) conveyed by subscribers. Signaling information are various information conveyed among system equipment and between mobile and system equipment for initiating, maintaining and terminating communications between subscribers of the same or different networks. Each base station comprises various system equipment for processing communication signals. The communication channel through which a subscriber transmits information to a base station is commonly referred to as a reverse link. The communication channel through which a subscriber receives information from a base station is commonly referred to as a forward link.
In CDMA networks (and other networks), often when a mobile transmits information to its base station over the reverse link, the information is received by the intended base station and other base stations. The information is typically transmitted in the form of a block called a frame. Several base stations process the received frames by determining their quality, i.e., whether a frame contains errors; this scenario is called a soft handoff. Thus in a soft handoff the mobile""s information is received and processed by more than one base station and the network takes advantage of the combined quality of the reverse links of the base stations to select a received frame from one of the base stations. The use of soft handoff thus tends to improve the Frame Error Rate (FER) of the mobile because if at least one frame has no errors, the frame selected is the one having no errors. A frame which is received with errors is an erroneous frame. The ratio of the number of erroneous frames received to the total number of frame received for a defined period of time is called the Frame Error Rate (FER). Any or all of the transmitted frames may be adversely affected by anomalies (e.g., fading, scattering) in the reverse links that cause errors to occur.
The FER is a parameter which is used by CDMA networks to implement power allocation techniques for controlling the amount of power used by a base station and a mobile in transmitting and/or receiving communication signals. A widely used technique is a power control method commonly referred to as directed power control. The directed power control method for a mobile in soft handoff contains two control loops called the outer loop and the inner loop. There is an outer loop for the reverse and forward links. Also, there is an inner loop for the reverse and forward links.
For a reverse link outer loop, each of the base stations in soft handoff with a mobile receives a frame and processes that frame to determine its quality. Each of the base station then transmits its received frame or information about the quality of the received frame to system equipment at the Message Switching Center (MSC) of the network. Each of the base stations will also determine a setpoint based on the quality of its received frame. The quality is typically quantified in terms of the FER of the received information. The setpoint is a power level at which the mobile should transmit its information in order to meet a target FER set by the communication network. The setpoint is defined in terms of a ratio of signal power (proportional to Eb) to noise power (proportional to N1) at the mobile, i.e., Eb/N1 where Eb is the energy per information unit and N1 is the noise power spectral density. If one or more of the received frames contains no errors, the MSC will then transmit a message to the base stations advising them that an errorless frame was received and to proceed with receiving the next frame. Each of the base stations, in turn, sends a message over its forward link to the mobile instructing the mobile to transmit its information at a power level that is less than the power level of the last frame. In other words, after receiving the instruction from the MSC, the base stations reduce the computed setpoint by a certain amount and transmit a new setpoint value to the mobile. Note that when all of the frames received contained errors, the MSC sends a message to the base stations advising each base station that its frame was erroneous causing each base station to increase its computed setpoint value. During the transmission of the next frame, the mobile will attempt to reduce (or increase) the power level of its communication signals to meet the new setpoint computed by the base stations; this is done by reverse the inner loop operation.
In the reverse inner loop, each of the base stations sends instructions to the mobile instructing the mobile to decrease (or increase or maintain) its transmission power level while the frame is being transmitted to comply with the new setpoint computed by the base stations. For example, many CDMA networks have 20 ms frames during which each base station transmits 16 inner loop instructions (one instruction every 1.25 ms) causing the mobile to increase, decrease or maintain the power level at which it is transmitting its frame. In particular, after computing a new setpoint, a base station sends commands (over the forward link) to the mobile. During the transmission of the next frame, the mobile responds to a command received from a base station by adjusting appropriately the transmission level of the frame. The base station measures the level at which it is receiving the frame and sends another command to the mobile to either increase, decrease or maintain the transmission level; this procedure is repeated several time (e.g., 16 times) during the transmission of the next frame in an attempt to have the mobile transmit information at the new setpoint power level. Therefore, the outer loop is responsible for adjusting the setpoint for a mobile while the inner loop is responsible for keeping the mobile""s transmission level as close to the adjusted setpoint as possible.
A major problem with the directed power control method (for reverse links) is that the FER for some of the reverse links may be unacceptably high preventing the corresponding base stations from successfully receiving other information (e.g., forward link power control information) over these links. The directed power control method adjusts the setpoint based on the best frame received ignoring the FER of the individual reverse links. Typically, the communication network imposes a target FER on its reverse (or forward) links. For example, for a mobile in 3-way soft handoff with equal path losses and in a communication network having a target FER of 1% for its combined reverse links, information received by each of the three base stations will have an FER of 21%. The path losses relate to the amount of degradation suffered by the frames after having propagated over the reverse link. Thus, even when the reverse link target FER is met, none of the individual reverse links being used in the soft handoff meets the target FER. In sum, the directed power control method used for reverse link soft handoff situations does not guarantee that at least one of the reverse links is reliable.
When the reverse link is used to transmit forward power control information from the mobile to a base station, the degradation of the individual link FER due to reverse loop operation has a significant adverse effect on the forward power control information. The forward power control information is information transmitted from the mobile to the base station instructing the base station as to the proper transmission power level of frames transmitted over the forward link by the base station. When the base station receives erroneous forward link power control information it cannot properly adjust its transmission power level and thus the forward link capacity is adversely affected. Power control operation for the forward link is also adversely affected.
A particular application of the directed power control method uses a reverse pilot signal to transmit both power control measurements (used for reverse link power measurements during reverse inner loop operation) and forward link power control commands over the reverse link. As explained above, the particular reverse link may be adversely affected to such an extent that the information transmitted with the use of the pilot signal becomes unreliable. One way to mitigate this problem is to increase the power of the reverse pilot signal for all of the reverse links of a soft handoff thus improving the performance of the power control for the forward link. However, such an increase in power for the reverse pilot signal causes the reverse link capacity to decrease because the pilot signal power level overwhelms the information being transmitted over the reverse links. Further, some of the reverse links may be operating at the target FER making an increase in the pilot signal unnecessary thus defeating the goal of efficient power usage.
What is therefore needed is a power control method for mobiles in soft handoff that allows at least one of the links to be reliable (i.e., complies with target FER) without adversely affecting power control information being conveyed over the at least one reliable link.
The present invention is a method for implementing power control in a communication network for at least one link being used by a mobile and base stations in soft handoff mode. At least one of the links being used in the soft handoff mode is operated at a quality imposed by the network without adversely affecting power control information being conveyed over the at least one link.
In particular the method of the present invention comprises the following steps: first, selecting the lowest setpoint from a group of setpoints received from the base stations in soft handoff with a mobile is selected. Each of the setpoints in the group is computed by outer loop power operations performed by each one of the base stations in soft handoff mode with the mobile. Second, regardless of the particular setpoint computed by each base station, the selected setpoint is used as a threshold for inner loop operations performed by all of the base stations in soft handoff with the mobile. Therefore, the method of the present invention will adaptively correct the power level of information over the link so that at least one link (i.e., the best link or the link with the lowest path loss) being used in the soft handoff connection will comply with any quality requirements being imposed by the network.